This product is available to you if you do not have this card and have not received a new cardmember bonus for this card in the past 24 months.

The short version is 50,000 points can be redeemed for $625 in travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards™. Using it is flexible as well, as you can buy a more expensive ticket (or tickets) and simply pay the difference. You can also transfer the points to various airline mileage programs as well and redeem miles for even better value. This card has a lot of other small features that other cards don’t offer. Full review below.

Rewards Program Summary

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card earns 2X points on travel and dining at restaurants. Earn 1 point for every dollar in other purchases. Travel includes airfare, car rental, hotels, and more. Restaurants include both table-service dining and fast food. There are no earning caps or expiration dates. The Ultimate Rewards points that you earn offer great flexibility:

Simple cash rewards. Cash redemptions are easy – you can redeem in $1 increments as long as above $20, so you could cash out $27 or $253 without anything left over. 100 points = $1.

Simple travel rewards. Points redeemed towards travel are worth 25% more, and you can apply them to any hotel or flight available on their travel portal. Redemptions can also be maximized because you can book wherever you want and simply pay the difference. For example, 25,000 points can be used for any ticket up to $312.50, but if say you wanted a $325 ticket you could just pay the $12.50 difference. You’re able to use every last point on this program, and you don’t have to worry about room or flight availability.

Flexible transfers to airline miles. If you prefer, you can also transfer to United Airlines, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Korean Air, Southwest, Hyatt Hotels, IHG Hotels, and Marriott Hotels. 1 Sapphire point = 1 mile/hotel point for these transfers. Miles redemption continue to offer great value for savvy travelers, especially for last-minute travel and business class seats. If you collect miles, this is really lucrative as I don’t know of any other card that gives 2 miles/dollar spent on travel and dining.

Sharing points. Ultimate Rewards points are instantly transferable to other accounts like family members, as long as they have their own card as a (free) authorized user. This way, you can pool points together for transfers and redemptions if you like.

More Features

Just nice-to-have perks:

Premium, dedicated customer service line with a live person, 24/7. I tested this out and it works. A real person picks up after a couple rings, no phone trees or typing those darn 16 digits over and over. You can use this feature to redeem cash rewards over the phone for free, although booking rewards tickets over the phone costs $20 (doing so online is free).

Travel-related perks:

$0 foreign transaction fees, plus chip-enabled for enhanced security and wider acceptance when used at a chip card reader

Primary car rental collision damage waiver insurance. Decline the rental company’s collision insurance and charge the entire rental cost to your card. Coverage is primary and provides reimbursement up to the actual cash value of the vehicle for theft and collision damage for most rental cars in the U.S. and abroad. Most other cards only offer secondary insurance, which means it only kicks in if your personal auto insurance does not cover an accident (which can trigger an increase to your premiums).

Trip delay reimbursement. If your common carrier travel is delayed more than 12 hours or requires an overnight stay, you and your family are covered for unreimbursed expenses, such as meals and lodging, up to $500 per ticket.

Lost luggage reimbursement. If you or your immediate family members’ checked or carry-on bags are damaged or lost by the carrier, you’re covered up to $3,000 per passenger.

Baggage delay insurance. Reimburses you for essential purchases like toiletries and clothing for baggage delays over six hours by passenger carrier up to $100 a day for five days.

Retail shopping and purchase-related perks:

Extended Warranty Protection. Extends the time period of the U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year, on eligible warranties of three years or less.

Purchase Protection. Covers your new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.

Return Protection. You can be reimbursed for eligible items that the store won’t take back within 90 days of purchase, up to $500 per item, $1,000 per year.

Price protection. If a card purchase you made in the U.S. is advertised for less in print or online within 90 days, you can be reimbursed the difference up to $500 per item, $2,500 per year.

I share the opinion with many others that this is a strong bonus backed by a solid rewards card for the savvy traveler. I say “savvy” because if you can wrangle 2 cents per mile of value out of a frequent flier program (quite possible), then this card is great value. During your first year, you should see if you can get enough value to justify the $95 annual fee. For someone who charges very little on their credit card and/or does not travel much, it is likely not a good rewards card for that situation.

For me, I keep this card around after looking at the whole picture. I have accumulated nearly 300,000 Ultimate Rewards points from this card and other sources including the Ultimate Rewards cashback portal and the Chase Freedom card, but I need to keep this card open to retain the flexible transfer options as I like to keep these UR points around to transfer over to specific partners as needed. I try to specifically put travel and dining out on this card, as I prefer 2 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar over 2% cash back. This works out because the travel protections on this card are stronger than most and only apply if you actually charge your travel on this card. Primary car rental CDW insurance is pretty valuable on its own.

“Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by the issuer. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of the issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the issuer. This site may be compensated through the issuer’s Affiliate Program.”

Comments

I have read many of your articles about credit card sign-up bonuses. I was wondering if one should limit themselves on the number of credits cards they open in a year. What do you do with those credit cards after you have earned the bonus?

I have the same question regarding bank accounts. How long do you keep your bank account open before closing it.

@Rizwan – I don’t think there is a single correct answer. Personally, I try to limit myself to 3 cards per rolling six-month period. Each credit inquiry will drop your credit score about 5-10 points for a temporary amount of time, depending on how long your credit history is, how many cards you have already, and how much of the credit line you use. The effect wears off after 6-months to a year.

I have had so many cards, that as long as I keep the old ones, I am fine cancelling whatever cards I no longer use. It doesn’t really affect my score, the canceling of cards. I definitely wouldn’t pay an annual fee unless you think the card is worth it on its own merits. Read more:

As for banks, if I decide I don’t like the bank, then I just close it
after I satisfy the requirements for the bonus. If the bank has no fees, then I might wait a while to see if I change my mind. Closing a bank account doesn’t affect your credit score. Opening a bank sometimes affects your score since a few of them check your credit score when you open (annoyingly).

@nikki: Good catch. I just read the terms & conditions again, and it looks like they’ve added a clause to monitor “promotion junkies” 🙂

I know I’ve personally taken advantage of a 25K offer multiple times for this same card. Hopefully this isn’t the end!

Snippet attached below from terms & conditions:

Replying to this offer: If you omit any information on the form, we may deny your request for an account. If applicable, Chase cardmembers who currently have or have had a Chase credit card in any Rewards Program associated with this offer or have received a similar bonus offer, may not be eligible for a second Chase credit card in the same Rewards Program, or for any bonus offer. Chase cardmembers currently receiving promotional pricing, or Chase cardmembers with a history of only using their current or prior Chase card for promotional pricing offers, are not eligible for a second Chase credit card with promotional pricing. You must have a valid permanent home address within the 50 United States or the District of Columbia. The information about the costs of the card described in this form is accurate as of 2/22/2010. This information may have changed after that date. To find out what may have changed, write to us at Cardmember Service, P.O. Box 15043, Wilmington, DE 19850-5043.

Besides the obvious credit score impact of opening and closing an account rather quickly, are there any negative impacts to obtaining the $500 statement credit and then canceling before the year is up? I want the rewards, but don’t feel like the card is worth $95/year, especially when my other Chase rewards card (non-sapphire) is doing me just fine.

I didn’t see anything in the fine print about cancelling after the first year to avoid the yearly charge, but am I missing something?

The 7% bonus is a nice perk, especially since I put most expenses on my card and then pay it off in full each month. In a year if I charged, for example, $10k, a 7% bonus would seem to equal $70. It’s not quite making up the yearly fee, but would surely be close.

My personal favorite is still my citi forward card. 5% from restaurants and amazon is HUGE. I recently changed jobs to a place with a cafeteria that takes credit cards, so the 3-4 bucks I spend on lunch each day is a nice little bump in points. It seems like I’ve been getting a $100 gift card every month or two for the last 6 months (I’ve had a few big amazon purchases on there, not all restaurant spending). The CVS gift cards are pretty much as good as cash for me, since I do a lot of random grocery shopping there on a regular basis.

I applied for this credit card online and I got the response from Chase that I will receive the approval decision by mail within next 10 days.
Did you guys get an instant approval or were you notified the decision through mail?

I already have a chase freedom credit card and I pay all my balances every month, wondering why I was not approved instantly on this one by Chase?

@Mike Z – You can buy your tickets anywhere – Expedia, Orbitz, direct from the airline, etc. You just go back to the website, pick the travel purchase (they can tell if it’s travel) and redeem your points. Your statement will then be credited. The benefit of booking a flight through their specific booking tool is that you get double points for the purchase.

Correction: On another part of the website, it states that the 25% travel bonus is only for when you book hotel or airfare through Ultimate Rewards. So it looks like I was wrong about this. I don’t know if the Ultimate Rewards site is more expensive than what is available on Orbitz, etc.

@Srikks – I think most people get the delayed response, even if they already have Chase cards.

I just signed up and received an Amex Preferred card this week – are my chances or being approved/denied significantly worse if i go for this deal at this time? Would waiting 7, 10, or 30 days make a difference?
I need to find out if I have had this card in the past sadly I do not even know anymore.

You can buy coins from the US Mint and deposit them in your bank account, purchase gift certificates from places you will shop at eventually through PlasticJungle at a discount (Home Depot, Target, etc.), buy American Express gift cards that don’t expire and then spend them gradually, prepay your auto insurance bills, prepay some utilities or cable bill in advance, but grocery store gift cards (Safeway cards at Safeway)…

i called the reconsideration line, but they rejected me even though i tried to be polite. they cited that the balance on my chase amazon card was low, so they had to refuse my request to close the chase amazon so that they might approve my rejected application for the worldplus mastercard or whatever it was called.

Nice deal! Unfortunately I applied before noticing the new clause excluding current Chase cardholders. I thought it was strange that I didn’t get an email confirmation right away after applying, Chase used to do this. I only know because I’m one of those promotion junkies that you speak of. Anyway, thanks Jonathan for another great deal a lot of people will benefit by it!

Re: the clause in the T&C’s about existing Chase cardholders and history of taking advantage of promotional offers.

I currently have 2 active Chase cards (Freedom and Southwest), and have taken advantage of the many Chase card promotions .. including numerous 25k promotions for this Sapphire card (thanks to Jonathan).

I submitted the application for this Sapphire 50k promotion. I received the notice that my app would need further review. I logged into my Chase online acct 2 days later, and saw the Sapphire card appear in my acct … which I am pretty sure means that I qualified. Still waiting for the letter to come in the mail, but I’m 99% sure I qualified.

So .. for anyone hesitant to apply for this card given the new T&C’s .. there is still chance you can qualify.

The “new” cardholder reference is definitely just for Sapphire cardholders, it does not exclude everyone with any Chase card. I can verify that, because I got approved for a Sapphire and I have lots of other Chase cards.

In addition, I have read reports that it’s only specific to a type of Sapphire card. A regular Sapphire card means you can’t have another Sapphire card. A Sapphire *Preferred* card means you can’t have another Sapphire *Preferred* card. I can’t verify this, but it makes sense only because they seem to treat these cards separately and won’t let you downgrade from Preferred to Regular.

Finally, if you closed your last Sapphire card at least 6 months ago, people have reported being able to sign up again as “new” cardholders. I can’t verify this except it worked on other Chase non-Sapphire cards before.

Finally finally, if you applied for a Sapphire card and got the 25k bonus earlier in the year, then try logging into your online account and sending a message to customer service asking for the additional 25k. You may get some sort of courtesy bonus.

I just had canceled the Sapphire Preferred card a few months ago before the annual fee for the second year was due and opened a Chase Freedom account.

After seeing this offer I signed up for the Sapphire Preferred card again and, to my surprise, was accepted! I didn’t receive any confirmation emails, the new account information just showed up when I logged onto my Chase account. The card should arrive in the mail soon.

Glad I got on here today. I was getting antsy to find out if I’d been approved. After seeing other’s experiences I just logged into my Chase account and saw a shiny new account posted there for me that I hadn’t noticed previously. Decent credit limit too. Thanks for the tip on this offer Jonathan. This will be the single best sign up bonus I’ve personally taken advantage of. I love cash back.

Can someone comment on whether or not Chase Ultimate Rewards ups the number of points required to purchase tickets as compared to Orbitz/Expedia, etc. If so, is this really a good deal or just worthless?

Hey Jonathan this may be useful to your readers. You may have gotten wind of this already at the FWF forums but people seem to be getting Chase to successfully add another 50,000 points to the original offer. The OP posted the offer code, S6V, of his targeted 100,000 offer.

I was just able to successfully get 50K applied to mine and my wife’s accounts (just applied this past Sat. night in fact) and it was really painless, took 5 minutes. 200,000 total!

I just this past weekend applied for my new Chase Sapphire Preferred card with a 50,000 sign up bonus of 50,000 points after spending $3,000.

Today, I learned of a new offer S6V which promises 100,000 bonus points. I would be very grateful if you would extend the 100,000 bonus point offer S6V to me as well since I just applied for the Chase Sapphire card.

I have been a long time customer of Chase, and have had my primary checking and credit card accounts with Chase for many years and hope to maintain them for many more years to come!

so, I don’t know if every store does this but Home Depot in my area allows you to buy gift cards with a credit card! I could buy a $3000 gift card, sell it on plastic jungle for the 90%, take the $100 hit and still come out with $400 and no money is tied up in any gift cards or nonsense. Win!

I called twice and they said it is definitely a Visa card. I had read a lot of different things saying it’s Mastercard, but it looks like it’s Visa. I’m so bummed because we were going to pay my husband’s tuition with it but his school doesn’t accept Visa! So disappointed…

What kind of school doesn’t take visa? Amex/discover I could understand, because there fees are notoriously higher. Sounds like a personal issue between the school and the cardholder, they probably had a bad charge back filed against them and now they just blacklisted visa out of spite.

“You can buy coins from the US Mint and deposit them in your bank account, purchase gift certificates from places you will shop at eventually through PlasticJungle at a discount (Home Depot, Target, etc.), buy American Express gift cards that don’t expire and then spend them gradually, prepay your auto insurance bills, prepay some utilities or cable bill in advance, but grocery store gift cards (Safeway cards at Safeway)…”

Can you explain how this is done? I do not want to buy the coins as an investment, just simply to hit the 3k spending requirement in a simple way. Thanks so much in advance for your help, time, and effort.

The US Mint has recently stopped accepting credit cards for coin purchases after a big NPR article about them. Please see this post about another credit card for tips on meeting higher spending requirements.

“use the personal version of Amazon Webpay to send money to your spouse, and I’ve even bought some Forever postage stamps to put me over the top.”

I think this is the best option out of what I read. From what I see there are no fees for doing this, either. Contacted customer service to confirm and am awaiting reply.

There does seem to be a $500/month limit for sending and receiving:
“Personal Accounts may receive up to $500 per month. The receiving limit may be raised or removed entirely once a credit card and verified bank account have been registered in the account.

Personal Accounts may send up to $500 per month once a credit card or verified bank account is registered in the account. Once both are registered, the sending limit may be raised or removed entirely.”

Has anyone had the sending/receiving limit removed after verifying a bank account and credit card?

I had the idea to do this 1x per month for 3 months and hit $1500 of the $3000. I have 93 days on the Sapphire Preferred, I assume.

Also, does anyone have any other ideas for hitting the spending limit?

I am going to switch all my auto-bill pays over to the Credit Card and use it for all my purchases over the next 3 months, however, this is more than I normally spend.

Hi Jonathan,
I had another question upon reading the terms that were mailed with my sapphire preferred card…the terms state:
“Term: Cash-like Transactions
What It Means: The following transactions will be treated as cash advances: ….making a payment using a third party service”

Does this mean that if I use amazon webpay that I am going to incur the fees:
“Cash Advances: Either $10 or 5% of the the amount of each transaction, whichever is greater” ?

Has anyone used Amazon Webpay with their Sapphire Preferred? If so, were you charged as per the terms above?

Thanks so much in advance for your time, effort, and assistance. It is so greatly appreciated.

@JP – It tends to be hit and miss on these types of things. Webpay is normally used to buy items, so it should not be counted as a cash advance. I have not heard of any cases where it has been, but that’s just me.

What you can try to do is to call up Chase and have them set your cash advance limit to zero. That means if something does count as a cash advance, the transaction will be automatically denied.

I just called Chase and tried to get my bonus points increased from 25,000 (which was the bonus in April when I applied) to 50,000 like they’re offering now. No go, the rep wouldn’t budge on this. First he tried to tell me the 50k was an “invitation only” deal, but I told him no, this was on your online application web page, which he finally agreed about. Still, he would not give me the extra points. Is anyone getting extra points now, or has Chase just decided to say no to everyone?

I applied for and received a Chase Preferred Card several months ago and got an instant acceptance (we do have very good CR so maybe there is a threshold for instant acceptance). One question I have is I put my wife on my Chase account and am now wondering what will happen if I apply for a card for her separately (always worth trying I suppose).

If you go to chase.com direct and click credit cards, it shows as only 40,000 points. Buy, if you click on his banner on this page it still shows 50,000. I signed up, so we will see if I get 40k or 50k points.

Yes, the 50k offer is still available for affiliates that have an advertising relationship with Chase. If you click through my link or another affiliate’s link and apply via that link after seeing the 50k offer, you should get the 50k points. (If you apply through my link, I will get a referral bounty, so thank you.) If you go to Chase.com, it is only 40k. As always, I recommend either printing out the offer page or saving a copy to PDF file for your records.

Sweet deal! I currently have the AMEX rewards card. 1 % on everything, 2 % on groceries and 3% on gas. I get the reward once a year though and cannot get it as I accumulate it which I do not necessarily like…

I signed up and was approved immediately. Thanks MMB. @Johnathan: I was wondering what your referral fee is for a credit card link like this. I am happy for you to get it, as I feel I benefit immensely from your blog and am happy for your to get something in return. Just wondering if you wouldn’t mind sharing that info.

I did it and got the delayed response. My wife did it and got the instant approval. All of our debt is carried in my name (0% Best Buy for 36 months, paid off my truck with a balance transfer for $18,000 at 2.99% for the life of the balance transfer) and none is in my wife’s name (other than the mortgage on our house). So my utilization looks like shit while her’s looks rosy as can be. We are in the process of a refi (set to close next week), and her CS is 775 and mine is 737 so we both have great credit, but my utilization is high. I wouldn’t be surprised if they denied me just based on the utilization alone (and the fact that the Best Buy and balance transfer are both with chase so they see it as I owe them $20k.

I don’t usually do credit card offers for the bonus, but $500 is a lot and the card just looks sexy.

Anyone get 1099’d for their $$$ or since it is ‘points’ it is considered a rebate and falls outside of 1099 rules?

This offer seems pretty good. Jon/Others, can you comment on how stringent/lenient Chase Sapphire is with accepting new members? I went through a period of time where I was trying to game AmEx CC signup bonuses, but they kept denying me for cards. I’m sure my credit score took some hit because of this. I’m a little worried that I will attempt to sign up for this one and get denied, and a vicious cycle will ensue.

i’d like to apply but i already have 3 CHASE credit cards and i recently just got approved for the Hyatt visa – with 2 free nights stay. Not sure if it will work if i convert one of the CHASE cards to Sapphire and still get the 50K bonus points.

@Mac – We talked about this on 3/25. If you do it on chase.com you only get 40k bonus points, but if you use one of the affiliate links, you can still get the 50k bonus points. Jonathan gave the ‘word on the street’ warning, because he has heard the affiliate links for 50k are going away soon.

I was reading through some of the posts, not all of them, and thought I would share my story about applying for this card. I found this site when thinking about applying for the CitiBank Visa card. I signed up for it and about a month later I thought I would sign up for this one too. I figured I could handle the spending minimums and I knew I had some large expenses coming my way. I was disappointed when I learned that the Chase Sapphire does not give you instant notification of whether or not you are approved. I was not sure what was going to happen so I also applied, successfully, for the Amex card also mentioned on this site. Within a week of this action, I received notice from Chase stating that the card was on its way. I mention all of this because someone was curious about credit inquiries. I do not think they are too troublesome seeing as I got three credit cards within a six week period. I did already have a Chase and Amex card so that may have helped, but it I am not sure.

Fast forward to present day. The Chase Sapphire is a funny card as it is much different than most credit cards in its physical stature. It has a noticeable weight to it and it is much stronger than your average credit card. I get comments on a regular basis when handing it to cashiers or the sorts. Many of them have trouble finding the Visa logo since it is on the back of the card.

I wish I could tell you how it works once you have completed the $3k spending in 3 months, but I am still about a month away from that. The card seems cool, but it is definitely not worth the annual fee. No card is in my opinion.

@Jonathan: I laughed when I saw your picture of the card as mine looks just like it, when I put my finger over the middle initial and last name.

@Mike – Credit card rewards as a category are considered rebates on purchases and thus don’t generate a 1009 form.

@J Bunch – This card is for those with good to excellent credit. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I haven’t seen a flurry of comments about denials or anything. Also remember the Chase credit reconsideration line at 1-888-245-0625 if you do get an initial rejection. Also see Jp’s comment above.

Update – Affiliate links are still 50k but are to be taken down first thing on 4/3. I fully expect the offer to change to 40k, as all of Chase’s other TV and print ads have been altered already.

@Jesse – Actually I think the dividend is given to you after the calendar year ends, on the statement that includes 1/31. It was for me. You don’t need to pay the annual fee to get 7% dividend. 🙂 I’m still undecided about keeping the card.

Jonathan – point of clarification can it be used for more than 2 tickets if the tickets are cheaper than 330 a piece? We fly FL to VA alot and usually get tickets for 180 roundtrip? Wondering if we could stretch this to 3 free round trip tickets?

I was hoping this was a MasterCard, because I can pay rent with MasterCard ($40 fee but I’d just do it to fill in the gaps for the bonus) but not a Visa. With a Visa I just don’t see myself charging enough on it for the bonus.

I got in just under the wire! I have a credit score in the upper 700’s but was turned down for this offer just a few months ago. The reason I was given was because I was already a Chase Freedom cardholder. I called the reconsideration line and they wouldn’t budge. This time I was instantly approved! Thanks, Jonathan!

Eric, that happened to me last year too and given the same reason (I had 2 Chase credit accounts). I recently got approved for the Hyatt Chase (wd 2 nights free) – so that makes it 3 Chase accounts and Discover for 0% APR & no fee balance transfers. I want to apply for this for the bonus points but not very confident of getting approval.

I used points to offset a plane ticket and I can safely say that the Ultimate Rewards travel site has comparable (if not a bit cheaper) ticket price rates. You can use as much or as little of your $625 you want toward the purchase. Great deal. Now it just has to have chip and PIN functionality so you can actually use your card in Europe.

Hey Jonathan, I clicked on your banner and applied for the Sapphire with 50,000 bonus points when I read your update about Chase reducing it to 40,000 points soon. I was not immediately approved and it said that I would get a decision in the mail. I got an email last night that they are sending me my Sapphire card. Do you think I should still get the 50,000 points or were they stalling so I would only get the reduced amount? Thanks!

Thanks Jonathan for letting us know of this great offer. I currently have the regular Chase Sapphire Card for almost a year. Am I still able to apply for this card and eligible the sign up bonus promotion? Thanks in advance.

I wanted to update because a few months ago I called about this card and asked if it was Visa or Mastercard. I was told it was definitely a Visa card, but I just applied for the card last week and was approved. I called and asked if they could make it a MC and she was able to switch it for me! So I should get the Mastercards in the mail this week.

Here are some tips readers have suggested. You can try to buy AMEX gift cards to help spread out the purchases over time, buy gas or grocery or Costco gift cards, prepay utility bills or insurance premiums, use the personal version of Amazon Webpay to pay others or send money to family/spouse/friends with no fee ($1,000 per month max), load money on American Express Serve with no fee ($25 bonus, $100 max load per day, $250/500 month max), and I’ve even bought some Forever postage stamps to put me over the top.

I actually got the Sapphire Preferred a few months ago, but I’m a newb to EMV. Other than looking kind of cool, what benefits does it provide? I’ll probably request an upgrade regardless, but I’m just curious.

EMV will really only help you in Europe. Then again, they can just as easily swipe the mag stripe on your card too. The only time I’ve noticed you need an EMV Chip & PIN card (this is only a Chip & Signature) is the unmanned kiosks like subway ticket vending machines.

@Jonathan,
How many Chase credit cards did you hold when you applied and got approved for Sapphire card? And, how many Chase do you hold now?

I was rejected a year ago because Chase said I already had 4 cards. I cancelled one card (BA card) and got approved this time. Chase becomes a bottleneck for travel credit cards — Hyatt, Priority Club, Marriott (Ritz), Southwest, British Airways, Amtrak, etc. in addition to Ink Bold and Sapphire. How come so many hotels and airlines choose Chase? Terrible for their business and customers.

What is your experience in dealing with Chase when/if you get multiple cards? Any trick to get 5th Chase card?

@Andy – Yes I think the max for Chase is 4 consumer cards open at one time. I would close the least useful one and before applying for another one, or just apply and call reconsideration line and they’ll close one for you to get you approved for the new card. Small business cards I think have a separate limit. Closing an account is not nearly as bad as some personal finance media articles make it out to be. I do it all the time, you pretty much have to if you want to try out all the new goodies they are offering. 😉

@Andy – You have to book the travel directions from the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal. It works just like Expedia and Travelocity and the like, and the prices are mostly identical in my experience. Redeeming is easy, just pick the hotel or airfare or whatever that you want, and choose the number of Ultimate Rewards points you want to use up. You can split between UR points and cash.

@Jonathan,
Thanks for detailed explanation. One more question: can I book a trip (flight or hotels or both) for my family members (if I do not go with them) on Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal using the ultimate reward points?

Which option presents a better value: book airplane tickets through Chase Ultimate Travel portal using Ultimate Points or transfer points into United or Southwest Airlines mileage to fly award flights?

Jonathan, what happens if I apply for the card, get the 50, 000 points but don’t get to use them within the first year and decide to cancel the card at the end of the first year in order to avoid the second year annual fee. Will I lose the 50,000 points or do I get to keep them and use them the second year although I already canceled the card? Thanks for clarifying!

@ Jana: Points never expire as long as you have the card. If you cancel the card you lose any unused points. So the key is to use your points before you cancel the card. You can transfer points to other programs. You can buy anything on Amazon.com with an exchange rate of 100 points per $1. You can also buy gift cards with points.

I took advantage of the offer about 6 months ago and just cancelled my sapphire card a few days ago. That was my third time getting a card and the bonus points. I’d like to sign up again, is there a certain length of time I need to wait before reapplying? Thanks!

Howard- Yes, I’ve cashed in the rewards three times. I don’t have any indication that they won’t allow it again this time. I’m almost to my $3,000 requirement now so I should know very soon. I’ve heard others talk about the new fine print in the agreement which states you can only do this once but this hasn’t been my experience. I’ve waited one billing cycle after cancelling before reapplying.

This card’s benefits have been significantly been reduced in value by Chase. This week I received notification that the travel rewards can only be transferred to another person if they are an authorized user on the card. In addition your travel rewards program must have the exact same name as the name on the credit card to transfer them.

After the end of this year the 7% points bonus ends.

Considering the $95 annual fee the card is no longer competitive. I will likely cancel the card near my anniversary date.

I actually think the authorized user requirement was a good compromise. Chase didn’t like that people were selling their points to online brokers, which was always against their terms but people did it anyway. It may not be in my best interest, but I can understand their point of view. With the new program, I can still transfer points to my wife or immediate family including my parents, which keeps the core flexibility. Those are people I would be willing to add as authorized users, even if I didn’t give them the physical card.

Any thoughts on a comparison of this card to the AmEx Premier Gold card? They are offering 50,000 points, on $1000 spending in 3 mos. I am considering one of the two, but the lower spending requirement for AmEx is enticing…

To my most recent knowledge, yes you can apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred and get the bonus if you already hold the regular Chase Sapphire. They are considered two separate cards. Indeed, the no annual fee “regular” Sapphire card has been discontinued by Chase and is no longer taking applications.

The Bonus Points Offer Detail states: “Purchases do not include balance transfers, cash advances, cash-like charges such as travelers checks, foreign currency, and money orders, any checks that access your account, overdraft advances, interest, unauthorized or fraudulent charges, or fees of any kind, including an annual fee, if applicable”. Question – Would Chase consider a charge by Plastiq to be any of the above and therefore not qualify for the bonus points?

My wife and I each got our own cards and added each other as authorized users. She just received her $593 cash back bonus after $4303 in spending and I’ve racked up $591 cash back after $4092 in spending. Much of that spending was via Plastiq (for year-end property tax and hoa bills) which did qualify for the bonus points. Even after the the Plastiq fees we cleared over $1000 ! What a deal!

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